Walk
by I Can See Stars
Summary: "Maru told me you are like, hella stressed. Let's go on a walk." "I can't hang out right now. I have a thing due in less than 72 hours." Astrid shuffled for a bit before Sebastian saw a plastic bag dropped directly onto his keyboard. His head snapped towards her. "Let's go on a walk."


Sebastian exhaled hard through his nose out of sheer frustration at the lines of code in front of him. He had spent all day trying to fix this website for his contractor, but the work done before he was hired was just absolute garbage. He deeply pondered the stupidity of the original developer as he launched his internet browser to look at the work he had done so far.

He leaned back in his desk chair as it loaded, annoyed at the slow speed his computer was performing at. His expression soured when he thought about how Zuzu City probably had much faster internet than the shitty dial-up service offered in Stardew Valley. The more he pondered on it, the more he felt absolutely smother by this sleepy

town. One day he will leave and be able to finally live his life without restrictions.

Sebastian was pulled from his thoughts by the white screen changing. He refocused his attention from his daydreams of finally ditching what has been holding him back and immediately cursed out loud. The screen read an error and he aggressively slammed his fist on his desk. This code was due in three days for the launch of this new marketing company's new campaign! He needed to fix this, _now._ He felt the growing headache in the middle of his forehead bloom as he opened back up dreamweaver and started pouring over his code to see what else could be wrong.

He hardly heard his door open and feet pad down his stairs over his music and loud typing. The only way he knew someone was in there was when he saw a flash in his peripheral. He didn't need to ask who it was, he already knew due to the wine red

hair filling his side vision. There wasn't anyone in town that really looked like _her_.

"Maru told me you're like, hella stressed right now. Let's go on a walk." Astrid the farmer

from down the road spoke.

"We can't hang out right now. I have this thing due in less than 72 hours." He grumbled, not looking up from the screen.

Sebastian heard an exasperated sigh and some shuffling from Astrid. He rolled his eyes, getting her to leave his room was like getting rid of roaches. Not that he thought she was a roach; Astrid was awesome. More than awesome. Incredible, even. Though he could never being himself to express it to her face. At least not yet. Probably never. Suffering was kind of his thing anyways. What's another thing to antagonize himself over in silence? He did it with Abigail and it eventually went away. However, in his heart of hearts, he knew he wouldn't be able to let this one go nearly as easily. His train of thought, however, was cut off by Astrid throwing something down in front of him.

Laying on his keyboard was a plastic bag filled with pot and a pack of strawberry

flavored cigarillos. His head snapped to her as she said sternly,

" _Let's go on a walk."_

The developer shot out of his chair, searching for his shoes clumsily as Astrid crossed her arms, waiting impatiently. They bounded up the stairs and out the door as quietly as they could due to how late it was. Sebastian looked at the clock behind the counter of the shop, not realizing that it was already past midnight.

They finally settled on the dock as the lake as their smoke spot and set themselves up at the end. Sebastian watched Astrid slip her shoes off before doing the same as she brought out her pocket knife out to split the cigarillo open to dump out the tobacco out and replace it with weed. He caught himself starting to fawn over her beauty as she focused on her rolling in the moonlight.

"You know, you should teach me how to roll sometime." He spoke, mostly to give himself something to focus on besides the almost painful butterflies fluttering in his stomach.

"Now why would I do that?" Astrid laughed as she ran her lighter over the seam of the blunt to seal it, "If I teach you to roll you won't need me anymore."

He laughed out loud as the absurdity of that statement. Not for the way she thought, of course. Sebastian knew that he would always need her. If not as a partner, but always as a friend. Weed (and her ace rolling skills) was what brought them together, but everything else is what caused them to become very close friends. _Friends_. Just friends.

He doesn't let himself dwell much on what they could be. He is going to leave one day, and he doesn't want to deal with the strings that would be attached if he were to shoot his shot. Astrid deserved a lot more than a long distance relationship with someone who went to the place she came running from. There was no way she'd ever leave the valley. Sebastian also knew he could never ask her to do it. He knew her feelings towards Zuzu City and that she came here for refuge from whatever happened to her in the past. He never knew why though.

He watched Astrid light the end of the blunt and the smoke balloon from her lips as she french inhaled her hit. His curiosity got the better of him.

'I don't remember why you moved out of Zuzu City," He spoke as she passed him the blunt.

"That's because I never told you," She said as she laid back on the deck with an exhale of smoke, her feet hanging off the end and over the water, "It was a girl. Amongst other thing, anyways. But mostly a girl."

"A girlfriend?" Sebastian inquired, his stomach sinking. Obviously Astrid dated other people before. He didn't know why he was so sad about it. He wish he had met her sooner. Maybe in the city. Where he could have convinced her to stay. His eyes followed her form as she sat up, taking the blunt and hitting it as she brought her knees to her

chest, looking up at the sky.

"Yeah. It was serious." She took another hit and exhaled before continuing,

"I had found the deed to this place and I was trying to convince her to move with me. I had been so frustrated with not moving up at Joja and how we were barely scraping by between the two of us. But I guess she didn't want to leave. I came home one night and her stuff was just gone. Just like that. I couldn't stay in a place where I watched love die.

It high key killed romantic relationships for me, to be honest. But it's whatever, I guess.

We've both moved on, obviously. I'm happy here."

Sebastian watched as Astrid took an extra hit of the blunt with a smile before handing it off. He placed it between his lips and inhaled silently as he pondered his next sentence. He felt the smoke catch in his throat and he coughed hard as he handed it back. Astrid giggled as she took the blunt back, her eyes narrow and red from the high.

"I think we should put this out for now. I just want to hang out." And with that statement, she snubbed out the lit blunt on the dock and put it back in her plastic bag.

A comfortable silence fell between the two friends as the humid summer air kissed their skin and a symphony of bull frog calls surrounded them. Astrid seemed to be in deep thought, staring at the dark lake beneath them with a slightly nervous expression. She looked at Sebastian suddenly.

"You know," She started, "I think I am coming around to the idea of love again. I've been thinking about it lately."

Sebastian swallowed, "Yeah?"

"Yeah," She turned back to the lake, smiling in an almost sorrowful way, "I think I finally met an exception. The problem is that now I'm the person who doesn't want to leave. But dear god, if he doesn't make me want to be in love again."

Sebastian almost threw up from how hard of a backflip his heart made. He was pretty sure he jolted ever so slightly. He wasn't stupid, he knew what she was talking about. Him. Astrid was talking about him, and for once he felt like he could breathe here. He felt the air open up and saw the beauty that this lake offered, even though he has seen it a million times. It made him realize that this town will never be too small for him as long as Astrid is in it.

Sebastian scoot over to Astrid, keeping his eyes straight ahead and his hands clutched in his lap to keep them from shaking. Out of happiness or fear, he still couldn't tell you to this day. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, hoping what he said

next was the right decision.

"You know," He took another deep breath, "I've been thinking about staying."

Another silence fell between the both of them as they stared into the distance, realizing what that meant as the fireflies danced around them. It was comfortable, the quiet saying all the things they needed to say as Sebastian moved closer to Astrid as wrapped his arm around her. She leaned into him, laying her head on his shoulder. He placed a kiss on the crown of her head as they watched the summer wind blow across the water of the lake and knew she was his exception for leaving. He didn't need to leave to find what he needed. She came to him and he never could have expected it. And he knew in that moment that he was finally at peace with his place in the world.


End file.
